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Pakistan ERF in full swing

In August this year I wrote a blog questioning whether the new emergency response fund (ERF) in Pakistan would attract funding for the humanitarian emergency from non-traditional donors much like the Haiti ERF following the earthquake in January.

I can now report that by the end of October the ERF has received a total of US$33 million from 8 donors. These contributions have and will be used to respond to the severe humanitarian needs caused by the floods that have devastated the country in recent months.

Of that total funding a large proportion, 61% was contributed by India, a first time donor to the in-country pooled funds. India actually chose to contribute 80% of its total funding to Pakistan through this pooled fund, the other US$5 million went directly to the World Food Programme (WFP) to fund emergency food assistance.

Two other donors have contributed to the ERF that do not usually contribute to pooled funds, these are Malta and Botswana. However it must be noted that they did channel funding for the first time through the Haiti ERF at the start of this year. In the case of Pakistan they chose to channel all their funding to the floods through this in-country pooled mechanism.

Donors to the Pakistan ERF (Source: UNOCHA FTS as at 25 October 2010)

﻿﻿﻿The more traditional DAC donors such as the UK and Norway also channeled some of their funding to the emergency through the ERF, providing US$7.8 million and US$1.5 million respectively.

According to the financial tracking service (FTS), the ERF has to date funded 26 projects. The water and sanitation sector has received the most funding representing a 50% share of the total. Some of the money, US$0.5 million has been disbursed to a Pakistan organization providing relief assistance to just over 2000 families. This demonstrates that the ERF is not only funding international organisations but also national ones and supporting existing capacity in-country, something that some other pooled funds have not been able to do.